Green Throttle's first game controller, the Atlas, developed by Huang.

Green Throttle's first game controller, the Atlas, developed by Huang.

Photo: Courtesy Green Throttle Games, Green Throttle Games

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A controller for Guitar Hero, which was co-created by Green Throttle Games CEO Charles Huang.

A controller for Guitar Hero, which was co-created by Green Throttle Games CEO Charles Huang.

Photo: RedOctane, SFC

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Green Throttle's first game controller, the Atlas, developed by Charles Huang, co-founder and CEO of Green Throttle Games of Santa Clara, and co-creator of Guitar Hero.

Green Throttle's first game controller, the Atlas, developed by Charles Huang, co-founder and CEO of Green Throttle Games of Santa Clara, and co-creator of Guitar Hero.

Photo: Courtesy Green Throttle Games, Green Throttle Games

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Charles Huang, co-founder and CEO of Green Throttle Games of Santa Clara, and co-creator of Guitar Hero.

Charles Huang, co-founder and CEO of Green Throttle Games of Santa Clara, and co-creator of Guitar Hero.

Photo: Courtesy Green Throttle Games, Green Throttle Games

Throttle Games links mobile to monitor

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As the PlayStation, Wii and Xbox lose market share to smartphones and tablets, video game developers face problems, too.

Playing graphics-rich sports, shooter and racing games on mobile touch screens better equipped for Angry Birds can be deflating or nearly impossible.

Guitar Hero co-creator Charles Huang thinks he has the answer: Supplement the mobile hardware with controllers that can better replicate the living-room gaming experience.

"The opportunity for us," says Huang, 43, "is to leverage the install base of all those (mobile) devices but give people the type of games they want to play."

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Some early investors think he's on to something. On Tuesday, Huang's Santa Clara startup, Green Throttle Games, is to announce it has received $6 million in Series A funding from Menlo Park venture capital firms Trinity Ventures and DCM.

Under Huang and co-founders Matt Crowley and Karl Townsend, Green Throttle has developed an Android-compatible controller that connects wirelessly via Bluetooth to mobile gadgets, which then link to high-definition televisions. Huang says he expects to have about 20 titles, including some of his own, ready for the launch of the controller and its app, Arena, in the first quarter of 2013.

Chris Scholz, the founder of Sausalito-based Free Range Games, is building a snowboarding simulation and a space-combat adventure for Arena.

"You get that big-screen experience that's hard to capture on the phone," says Scholz.

CEO's experience

While Huang enjoyed playing games growing up, he didn't expect to make a career out of it. Born in Taiwan, he moved with his family to New York at age 8 and then to the Bay Area five years later. He studied economics and Asian studies at UC Berkeley, then worked for his family's auto-parts business after graduating in 1992.

Experience with tools came in handy when he and his younger brother, Kai, got the startup itch during the late-1990s tech boom. After their open-source server software company Adux failed, they started RedOctane in 1999 as a Netflix-like rental service for games.

Although that flopped, too, they kept the name and moved into game-hardware development. The Huang brothers struck gold when they published Guitar Hero in partnership with Harmonix Music Systems. The Huangs accepted a $150 million buyout from Activision in 2006 and stayed aboard until the popularity of the series waned two years ago.

Green Throttle's controller will retail for between $40 and $50, Huang says, and by mid-2013 Arena will be compatible with Apple devices.

Some games will be free to download; others may cost a few dollars. As with other apps, Google or Apple will keep 30 percent of the revenue.

Competition

With his first round of venture financing in hand, Huang sounds confident that his merging of mobile and big-monitor gaming will be a hit.

"We believe a large percentage of consumers will use their phones or tablets to play games on a TV, and mobile-to-TV gaming could quickly grow to surpass the console market," said Huang. "By building a straightforward way to enjoy mobile games together with your friends, we hope to revolutionize how mobile games are played."

"The ability to play mobile games on a big screen TV is very attractive, and Green Throttle's leadership is well poised to bring in the kind of top quality games and industry connections that are needed to turn the Atlas controller and Green Throttle's solution into a household name," Ajay Chopra, general partner at Trinity Ventures, said in a release accompanying the funding announcement.

But now comes the real challenge: getting users. The company has to compete with big-name brands in brick-and-mortar stores and with hundreds of thousands of rival apps.

"It's not an insurmountable challenge, but it's a significant one that companies of every size in the gaming space have," says Scott Steinberg, head of strategic consulting firm TechSavvy Global. "You're competing for share of attention."

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